Home is widely recognised as a place of emotional attachment, often expressed and articulated through material objects which lie at the heart of attempts to uncover what made a house into a home. One important aspect of this is the notion of comfort, both in a physical and emotional sense ; yet comfort is a relative term, its fulfilment dependent upon a wide range of economic, social, cultural, environmental and psychological factors – from wealth to the weather, and from family to fashion.

This conference aims to explore the wide range of ways in which ideas and ideals of comfort were expressed in and through the home ; how these changed over time and space, and whether it is possible to identify a European conceptualisation of home and comfort.

Thursday 5th October

10.00-11.00 Registration and coffee

11.10-12.00 Keynote 1: How to ‘live comfortable’: northern English tradesmen in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Hannah Barker, University of Manchester

12.00-13.15 Panel 1: Family, sociability and the emotions of comfort

Emotional labour and the household in 17th and 18th century England – Dominic Birch, King’s College, London

Samuel Pepys, comfort and social accounting – Jamie Graves, University of Sheffield

The InTRu laboratory brings together researchers from different scientific fields: history of art and architecture, literature, philosophy, aesthetics of comics, history of photography, cinema, design. They share common methodological concerns about cultural transfers and reception phenomena. Research also focuses on issues of cultural and artistic hierarchy and legitimacy.